Contraception and Cultural Chaos — Part 1 of 6

This July 25th marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial papal documents in history: Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae which reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception. If you have wrestled with this teaching, believe me, I can relate. Years ago I almost left the Church over it. Forty years of perspective provide an opportunity to take another look. That’s what I’ll be doing in [the next] several columns.

You may have noticed above that I said “traditional Christian teaching” on contraception. Only in the last 50-70 years has this been viewed primarily as a “Catholic” issue. Until 1930, all Christian bodies stood together in their condemnation of any attempt to sterilize the marital act. That year, the Anglican Church broke with more than nineteen hundred years of uninterrupted Christian teaching. When the pill debuted in the early 1960’s, the Catholic Church alone was retaining what in 30 short years had come to be seen as an archaic, even absurd position.

One way to begin understanding the Church’s stance is by “judging the tree by its fruit.” This is what first made me realize that contraception was a much more important issue than I had realized.

When Margaret Sanger and her followers started pushing contraception in the early 1900’s, wise men and women — and certainly not just Catholics — predicted that severing sex from procreation would eventually lead to sexual and societal chaos. Today’s culture of adultery, divorce, premarital sex, STD’s, out-of-wedlock births, abortion, fatherless children, homosexuality, poverty, crime, drugs, and violence was all foreseen.

What’s the connection with contraception? While today’s societal chaos is certainly complex, the following demonstrates the “inner logic” of contraception’s contribution. People are often tempted to do things they shouldn’t do. Deterrents within nature itself and within society help to curb these temptations and maintain order. For example, what would happen to the crime rate in a given society if jail terms suddenly ceased?

Apply the same logic to sex. People throughout history have been tempted to commit adultery. It’s nothing new. However, one of the main deterrents from succumbing to the temptation has been the fear of pregnancy. What would happen if this natural deterrent were taken away? As history demonstrates, rates of adultery would skyrocket. What’s one of the main causes of divorce? Adultery. Apply the same logic to pre-marital sex. Such behavior has, indeed, skyrocketed. Premarital sex, as a kind of “adultery in advance,” is also a prime indicator of future marital breakdown.

It gets worse. Since no method of contraception is 100% effective, an increase in adultery and pre-marital sex will inevitably lead to an increase in “unwanted pregnancies.” What’s next? So many people think contraception is the solution to the abortion problem. Take a deeper look and you’ll see that that’s like throwing gasoline on a fire to try to put it out. In the final analysis, there is only one reason we have abortion — because men and women are having sex without being “open to life.” If this mentality is at the root of abortion, contraception does nothing but foster and afford this mentality.

Not everyone will resort to abortion of course. Some will choose adoption. Other mothers (most) will raise these children by themselves. Hence the number of children who grow up without a father (which has already been increased by the rise in divorce) will be compounded. And a culture of “fatherless” children inevitably becomes a culture of poverty, crime, drugs, and violence. All of these social ills compound exponentially from generation to generation since “fatherless” children are also much more likely to have out-of-wedlock births and, if they marry at all, divorce.

What about homosexuality? Our culture is impotent to resist the “gay agenda” because we have already accepted its basic premise with contraception — the reduction of sex to the exchange of pleasure. When openness to life is no longer an intrinsic part of the sexual equation, why does sexual behavior have to be with the opposite sex?

Forty years after the release of Humanae Vitae, many people are beginning to see that the Church might not be crazy after all.

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Marriage by its very nature is incarnate. This is its definition defined by God with the birth of His Son. The first Adam’s marriage was incarnate until it fell and he and his wife left the garden. Marriage is a one flesh union, but who became your flesh, the answer is the Incarnation.

A man does not become the flesh of a woman nor does a woman become the flesh of a man, so if marriage is a one flesh union, this can only be achieved through Christ, through the Incarnation.

Have you not herd men say, “I did not what to did like my dad, but I am just like him” or a woman say, “I did not want to be like my mother, but I am just like her”. How come we are not saying, “I did not what to be like Christ, but I am just like Him”? Could be that our marriages are not Incarnate, but how can this be. Maybe it is because “I love you” is pagan and comes from romance novels.

What should we say, when our children ask, “Do you love mommy’? What about saying, “Mommy loves Christ and I love Christ and we all love Christ”. The first commandment say, “We love the Lord Our God with all our minds, all our heart and all our strength and the second is like it, we love our neighbor as ourself” This is not a counter diction because of the Incarnation. We love each other because of our love of Christ, not in spite of that love.

The Incarnation is the marriage of man and God, this is true marriage, and sets the standard for all marriages, as does the marriage of Saint Joseph and Mary, the first incarnate marriage since the marriage of Adam and Eve. This is why we must see Saint Joseph and Mary as the the new Adam and Eve, because all our marriage need to be Incarnate.

All of our marriages need to be Incarnate, and this is accomplished by God through the Eucharist which is the Incarnation of our marriages.

As I thought about the Covenant, the Eucharist, the Incarnation and my wedding day, these vows came to mind.

The man says to his wife, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for it shall bear my children”.

Then the wife says to her husband, “Blessed are you among men and blessed be the seed which bring forth the fruit of my womb, my children”.

Then on the day of the priest ordination he says, “Blessed is this patten and this cup, for they shall bring forth the Body and Blood of our Lord and make us a new creation in Christ”.

Then when the priest elevates his gifts above the alter, so does the husband and wife, thus becoming one family in Christ. In this way the love of Christ is born, and the Church comes alive with the Spirit. The covenant of marriage is the very heart of the Church, because by it, all life is elevated to the heights of heaven. It is this that gives man and woman the dignity they deserve, and our Church the resource it needs to survive the culture of death.

This is what love does, it elevates the other, in service and thanksgiving, thus the Eucharist becomes in truth, a thanks offering.

To bless something is to set that something apart from all other of its kind, for a specific purpose, and to guard it. This setting apart creates human dignity. It makes us what we are to be, holy, for to be holy is to be elevated by another, especially Christ. This is to participate in Christ ministry, of the Eucharist, it elevates all who participate into heaven. How is this done, by making a gift of yourself.

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Do you not see how the story of Adam and Eve repeats itself in the nativity story? Eve brings Adam fruit and he eats of it and we have a guard, who fell with his wife, and death entered. Mary brings Saint Joseph the fruit of her womb and he guards it and we live again. The Arc of the Covenant goes beyond the womb of Mary unto the marriage of the Holy Family, a true picture of marriage as it should be Incarnate.

The archetype of Adam is the priesthood and of Eve the laity. Our priesthood should look to Saint Joseph as their guide because he shows them how to guard the Real Presence, our Incarnation and his bride, the laity.

Destroyed Marriages lead to Murder

Here we are talking about school shootings, judges, street violence, and a general break down of culture. This all happens because Catholic do not understand the basics of their marriage. We have far to many fallen marriages and far to few restore ones.

Two Types of Marriage

Fallen marriages come from the fall of Adam and Eve. These marriages base their existence on Satan’s lie to Adam and Eve, that is that they can be like Gods, but more importantly Adam and Eve no longer trusted God. The results of this was a distrust of each other. But this was only the beginning for this lead to Cain killing Abel.

Restored marriages began with the Incarnation which came to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, restoring marriage as to its beginning.

What we have done to marriage is made a sport of it. We have place men on one team and women on the other. Then what do we do we select cheerleaders, that is socialist and psychiatrist, who write books and articles to cheer on their team. That is what Satan did with Adam and Eve. It is his game and he is the coach and manger of each team. The results of the contest is the bad and good fruit of Eve, Cain and Abel.

God has a different plan for marriage. As a parents at birth, you bare a new creation in Christ. Parents who love Christ’s presence set an example for their children, who seeing the love their parents have for Christ become Christ like themselves. This cycle repeats itself when they become parents. We call this restored marriage, and it was first accomplished with the Incarnation.

What a contrast to the fallen game of marriage played out in our culture. A culture who enjoys Satan’s game plan over God’s.

The media promotes for their benefit Satan’s plan making their news, a sporting event. We are a culture who likes our sports.

What do the people say that are tangled in this web, we can not help it, we are educated, we are elite. Satanic education as an excuse, just does make it in my eyes.

What is contraception

Chapter three of the book of Genesis is a story of guards. The first guard was Adam, who failed to protect the trees in the middle of the garden. The tree Adam failed to protect was Eve, who bore the fruit of Cain and Abel, the tree of good and evil.

Now, it does appear that since the old guard, Adam failed, a new guard was assigned to guard the tree of everlasting life, that is Mary, whose fruit was Jesus.

This position of guard became the position of high priest, an office first held by Adam, whose replacement was St Joseph, who was replaced by Jesus, who is high priest forever. In the book of Genesis, we see the assignment of the new High Priest, made by Jesus, the Real Presence in the garden.

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Now that we have setup the story, we can read John Paul the Greats exhortation “Guardian of the Redeemer”.
Why is this so important, because men’s role in marriage is that of the guardian of the tree of life, a position they have failed at for some time. This is best said in the words of God, “And blessed is the fruit of the womb”, but men of this day would rather curse this fruit.

Contraception say unto men, “You need not be a guardian, you can be a thief in the night”.

Women say, “We have a chemical guardian now, so forget your role and become a thief”. But does not this thievery lead to the pedophile? Does it not lead us to the homosexual? Does it not lead to violence? It most certainly does, read Genesis chapter four.

Does not this lead us back to the fall. There is something better than you, it is I and it is I that will be in control. Now the question become which I, since it is no longer God. Is this why God’s name is I am?

It appears that it was not God who walked away, but Adam and Eve and each wanted control, that leads to chapter four of Genesis, and murder. Why murder, because marriage is better defined as it was in the beginning with God in control.

The purpose of intimacy is to make a new creation in Christ. the Real Presence in the garden. That is why the love of the Real Presence is so important by both of the spouses, it points the way to this new creation in Christ and the beginning.

What does Satan do? He destroys God’s creation.

Divorce, Oh, What have You Done

Can any see how the sundering of Matrimony – the Sacrament, and of two-become-one united together in and by vows, and joined-together by God – in divorce per-staged all this before any could really see the horrors which have resulted? E.g., i.e., wasn’t depreciating and belittling the terrible results of divorce on children just a bit of ‘aborting’ the children, after all, by smothering their agonized cries and shocked voices?

Think of it – the one, sole Sacrament behind love of two in this Sacrament of Matrimony ,
love of family , love of baby and baby-making/raising , having elderly grandparents to lovingly care-take rather than shelve or ‘put-to-sleep’ – indeed, at the heart of civilization –
is trivialized as regularly as rain, for centuries now in legalized (and most especially in ‘no-fault’, which would be better termed ‘both-fault’) divorce.

Simply . . . if we can ‘terminate’ and ‘abort’ Mommums and Daddums at their life-giving Sacrament, why not Baby-ums at or before he breathes in life?
If the Sacrament of Matrimony can be ended, why not contra-conceiving and/or aborting and/or infanticiding the fruits of what-would-be, in God-and-life-ordered morality, of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

The Two Covenants

There are only two sacraments which are considered covenants. They are Marriage and Eucharist. This is no mistake, it is because the two are one. This is why I proposed to my wife with the words, “Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for it shall bear my children.”.

Each and every Mass is an annunciation, a proposal brought forth by Jesus through the priest. The priest overshadows the gifts of bread and wine via the Holy Spirit just like the Angel Gabriel said unto Mary, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”. This is why the bread and the wine become the Real Presence. We should be just like Mary and say “How can this be?”, and then say “Be it done unto me according to your word.”. Paul said that we become a New Creation in Christ, and so it is that we are born again at each and every Mass. You can see this when the priest places his hands over the gifts and says, “Come Holy Spirit over these gifts of bread and wine”.

When we were Baptized, we were espoused to Christ, the Bridegroom and now He consummates our relationship at each and every Mass for we are the bride of Christ.

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The husband and wife also consummate there relationship and that act is explained to us at each and every Mass by the actions of the priest, the bridegroom, and his bride, the congregation. This is why marriage is Holy and why the two are one. The husband and wife are a walking, talking Eucharist because Christ and His Eucharist is our first marriage and the bridge we walk to enter into our domestic marriages. We will never understand marriage until we understand Christ and His Eucharist.

After the consecration of the bread and wine, the priest will divide the large Host in two, displays it and saying “ This is the Lamb of God”. This division of the Body of Christ is the sign of the covenant. Therefore it is important to understand what a covenant is. A covenant is a ancient rite in which two tribe entered into a binding relationship. The sign of the covenant was the division of a two year old heifer into two halves. Now the tribes would separate into two bodies, one body to the left and one to the right watching as their leaders pass between the two halves, entering into covenant. The two leaders agreed that if any member of their tribe would disobey the terms of the covenant, that that leader would be divide just like the two year old heifer was divided. This is why covenants must be taken seriously. In covenant the two tribes became one tribe. Another term for this is family.

Notice that in the marriage ceremony the tribes are divided into two, one to the left and the other body to the right. This establishes the covenantal relationship described above. Notice also that the married couple walk between the two tribes attending the ceremony to establish the covenant of marriage. Thus they say “Until death do us part”. This only reflect the seriousness of the covenant the couple just entered into.

These two covenants should be taken seriously. The couples in marriage and the Eucharist are bound together by God. As the first Adam said “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. Just like the Eucharist though divided came from one Host, the couple though divided, husband and wife, are one family.

This is why covenants are a firm sign of unity, and why the church is called the Body of Christ. A family can not survive without the truth, not our church family nor our domestic families. Speak it, look at it, live it, do not be afraid of the truth.

Seeking A Joyful Marriage

We do not recognize the significance of the marital bond, the one flesh union. This union was so one, that the guardianship of Adam and Eve was one, with the Real Presence in the garden. This is why we find Joseph and Mary seeking the Real Presence for three days in Jerusalem and finding Him in the temple. This is why Joseph is the new Adam because he did what the first Adam was suppose to do and that was guard the Real Presence. Joseph and Mary seek the Lord because they understood Him to be the Real Presence, the same Presence we find strolling in the garden in the evening with Adam and Eve.

The Incarnation is the reestablishment of the original intent of marriage, that is “Thy will be done“, for Christ said, “I have come to do My Father will“. It shows marriage in its true purpose, guardianship of the Real Presence. This intent was destroyed when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

We can see now that every man is to become a new Adam, and why Joseph sets the example of guardianship and passed that example on to his Son. This is the key to a successful marriages, a husband and wife seeking out the Real Presence. This is the source of a joyful marriage.

This all comes forth from the words of God given to the first Adam, “ to guard and till the garden”. Adam was to guard the will of the Real Presence, who said “Do not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden”. Love is fostered by obedience.

You can either follow the path of the first Adam and Eve, who showed disregard for the Real Presence or the path of Joseph and Mary and seek out the Real Presence in the garden. In the first case we have described a dysfunctional marriage and in the second a functional one. In the first they debate as to which one is the true God, Adam or Eve, and the second God is the Real Presence. Remember what Satan said “You will be like God”, so Adam and Eve attempt to be just that God, and so do we if we do not seek out the Real Presence. Another way of put this is that the love of a man for a woman is not enough to accomplish a marital bond, it requires the grace of God.

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Our culture would call this the battle of the sexes, but how does it come about by remove God from the marriage formula. The culture wants to remove God from everything. Science has said no mysteries, and no God for God is mystery, but so is man to the woman. The mystery of man to the woman drives science up a wall, because if this mystery exist then, just maybe so does the mystery of God. Disprove one mystery, and the other goes away.

So the culture wars are nothing new but the oldest game in town, for it started with the very first temptation in the garden. Lust was born the day of the fall when Adam and Eve, said “My will be done”, instead of “Thy will be done”. Thus Satan fathered lust.

The Real Presence is Jesus who is Creator and the Giver of life. The One who gives the gift of creation, that is why He is male, for the male is the giver of the gift of life, just like God who is the Creator and the giver of all life.

Lust is to remove the Real Presence. My will be done finds its means in divorce, contraception, sterilization, abortion and homosexuality. These are lustful acts void of “Thy will be done”.

One last point we are not guardians of the Real Presence because He needs our protection but because we need His. We guard Him because He is the Jewel of great price, something we do not want to loose, like Adam and Eve did in the garden, no, instead we want to be like Joseph and Mary and use all are means to seek Him out in the temple, this means that a husband and wife should be at church learning from Christ.